Dhaka: The High Court (HC) on Tuesday asked the authorities concerned to withdraw three officers of Rapid Action Battalion-3 and send them to their respective forces for not producing an accused before the court within 24 hours into his arrest in a human trafficking case.

A two-member HC bench comprising Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim came up with the order after hearing a bail petition filed by the accused, M Rashed Khan.

The court also asked for taking departmental action against the three Rab officials -- Major Fahim Adnan Siddique, assistant superintendent of police M Abdur Rakib Khan and senior warrant officer DAD Dijendra Chandra Da, also plaintiff of the case -- following investigation.

Deputy Attorney General Farhad Hossain and Assistant Attorney General Yousuf Mahmud Morshed argued for the state while ASM Abdul Mubin stood for the Rab officials.
 According to the court sources, the three Rab men arrested three suspected human traffickers -- Selimuzzaman, M Shahidul Islam and Anwarul Azim -- in January last.

Later, based on their information, the Rab personnel arrested 15 other suspected human traffickers, including Rashed Khan, from January 7 to January 20.

However, they did not produce any of the arrestees before the court within 24 hours of arrest as per the law.

Later, Rashed filed a petition with the HC seeking bail in the human trafficking case.